The state of Okahoma has released more details about the botched execution of inmate Clayton Lockett on Tuesday. From the New York Times:
Finding a suitable vein and placing an IV line took 51 minutes. A medical technician searched both of his arms, both of his legs and both of his feet for a vein into which to insert the needle, but “no viable point of entry was located,” reported the corrections chief, Robert Patton, in a letter to Gov. Mary Fallin that her office released. A doctor, the letter said, “went to the groin area.”
(I wondered if “groin area” was a Times euphemism for the urethra, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.)
Once the IV was placed, the process lasted 30 minutes longer than is typical for Oklahoma executions. For 27 of those minutes witnesses were apparently unable to see what was happening in the execution chamber after a physician lowered a set of blinds.
Lockett also had to be subdued via Taser before guards could bring him to the chamber.
